Words by Smiley Team
“Together, we’ll make chocolate 100% slave free” – that’s the simple, yet powerful mission of Tony’s Chocolonely, says Nicola Matthews, the chocolate brand’s UK Marketing Manager.
“That’s our vision, but we cannot do it on our own,” she says. “We need support, but we really feel like it’s possible.”
The issue awareness of slavery in the chocolate industry is low in the UK, says Nicola – around 28%. This is in comparison to the Netherlands, where Tony’s started, where awareness is at around 75%. “When consumers are more aware, they can choose more consciously," she says.
Tony’s started in 2005 in Amsterdam by three journalists from a Dutch TV show Food Unwrapped, after they found out that the world's largest chocolate manufacturers were buying cocoa from plantations that used illegal child labor and modern slavery.
[Read More: Care home companions giving joy to residents]
A few years before, in September 2001, chocolate and cocoa industry representatives signed an agreement, developed in partnership with Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Eliot Engel, to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in the growing and processing of cocoa beans and their derivative products wherever cocoa is grown. It was called the Harkin-Engel protocol.
However, in 2020, the NORC report revealed there were still more than one million children working illegally on cocoa farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, “20 years later, and nothing had changed,” says Nicola. “That just reinvigorated our passion at Tony’s.”
Part of the problem, believes Nicola, is that the issue can feel quite far away for people. They are just buying chocolate as a treat, and don’t know there's a bitter truth in the “seemingly full of joy” chocolate industry. But Tony’s has one simple message: if you choose chocolate more consciously, you're choosing change and joining their mission.
That’s what the company’s new initiative, Choose Agents, is all about. “It’s our version of a newsagents,” says Nicola. “We invite people to choose change – literally.”
Choose Agents is a tour across four major cities in the UK to spread awareness about inequalities in the cocoa industry. Tony’s are taking their Choose Agents on tour to Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester. Taking the form of a newsagents with a Tony’s twist, visitors will be able to sample Tony’s chocolate bars but also learn about inequality in the cocoa industry.
[Read More: The vegan wine brand removing plastic from our oceans]
Using interaction and education – and Tony’s chocolate, of course – the Choose Agents experience will highlight Tony’s Five Sourcing Principles for ensuring slave-free cocoa – 100% traceable cocoa beans, paying a higher price, strengthening farmer cooperatives, engaging in long-term direct trading partnerships, and focusing on cocoa quality and productivity to optimise cocoa yields.
The tour will show that every chocolate fan has the power to change the industry for the better through their purchasing choices. With the UN designating 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, the message is clear: the time to act is now.
Tony's has always been transparent about how there are instances of child labour occurring on the cocoa farms where they source their beans – and they actively look for these so they can solve them. "We use 100% traceable beans, so we know exactly which farms we are working with, and we have a Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in place across all seven cocoa cooperatives that we source from in Ghana and Ivory Coast," they state on the website.
With Choose Agents, Nicola says: “We will be sharing all the things we do to make sure we are eradicating illegal labour and modern slavery from our supply chain. It’ll be very interactive, bright, colourful – and full of chocolate!”
This is the first time the company has taken Tony’s to do something big outside of London. “This is what we love to do, meet fans in real life,” say Nicola. “We love conversation and story-telling, to empower many choco fans as we can with knowledge and issue awareness.”
Tony’s message is simple: We can all make small change that can add up to big changes – share their chocolate, share their story – and share a Tony’s bar.
Choose Agents Tour Dates:
Rock up – they’re open to everyone. You’ll get info about Tony’s, and of course a bit of free chocolate. Find out more here.
